Indian Creek (part 1)

So we’ve finished our first few days of climbing in Indian Creek and we’ve discovered why it’s such a popular destination for climbers. Besides the free camping and relaxed atmosphere, the climbs are spectacular with cracks of all sizes to test yourself on. On most of the popular routes, the gear tends to be idiot-proof – just plug your cams in and climb. It definitely feels a bit like sport climbing and is a great place to really push yourself on lead.

The only real drawbacks are the crowds at Supercrack Buttress: on busy days it’s a circus show with dogs running everywhere and groups of 5 or 6 people toproping all the popular lines. But if that’s not your thing, just go to any other wall (and there’s a lot of them) and you’ll probably get on everything you want to climb. Oh, and there’s not a whole lot of sub 5.10 routes. There’s a few good ones, but plan on suffering a bit if you come to Indian Creek without being solid at 10s.

You also hear a lot how some of the routes require an absurd amount of cams to climb and while that’s partially true, you can climb quite a few routes with a lighter rack (light being relative = 3 sets of cams). Just look for the routes that change size. Or just hang around Supercrack Buttress and try to borrow some or get on a toprope. (I borrowed 5 #3 camelots in order to do Supercrack – it would have been terrifying with only 2!)

Here’s some of our favorite routes here (although almost any route here would be a classic at any other crag): Generic Crack 5.10-, Incredible Handcrack 5.10, Supercrack 5.10, The Wave 5.10+, The Cave Route 5.10+, Black Uhuru 5.10+, Our Piece of the Real Estate 5.11-, Scarface 5.11-, Pente 5.11-. Phew, and that’s after just 4 days of climbing.

Petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock, 100 feet off the road on the drive into Indian Creek. This is one of the most impressive rock art panels we’ve seen on our trip so far!

That’s a Supercrack! Here’s Matt starting to get into the “business” of this classic. From this point on it’s mostly blue camelots (cupped hands for Matt, some arm-swallowing size for Joanne) for 70 feet or so. My feet were pretty sore after jamming them in the crack for so long.

The Cave Route (10+). This is one of the most unique routes we’ve ever climbed. It climbs inside this cave with a sandy floor that makes for a great place to hang out when it gets hot. You don’t realize how long it is until you’re starting to get tired halfway. Bring lots of #1 camelots!

Joanne powering up through the crux on Railroad Tracks (5.10-). This is a good short route for those who might be “gear-challenged” or “cam-deficient”.

Pente (11-). This route just keeps going and going…160 feet of fun! It’s eats up 1-2 camelots (bring 4 of each or more!) but make sure to bring some 0.75/0.5s for the top and maybe 1 or 2 bigger pieces (a #4 works well in one of the “pods”).

And in case you forgot what route you were climbing…a few of the classic routes have these plaques at their base – an Indian Creek tradition.

Here’s our camping spot – pretty scenic, eh? This is the only outhouse in the whole canyon so we found it convenient to park right next to it.

Sunrise on the Bridger Jack Mesa, one of the more distinct formations in the area.

Click here for part 2 of Indian Creek

Utah National Parks (Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches)

So…..I mentioned in the last post that my Mom, Zach, and Liz visited us while we were in Zion. So here’s a few pictures of us together!

We all hiked up together to the Emerald pools, a really nice sandy beach with a tall waterfall pouring over the sandstone cliffs above. A few days earlier, while Joanne and I were climbing Moonlight Buttress, everyone else did the Angel’s Landing hike. I was really impressed that my Mom made it to the top! (The trail gets very narrow ~ 3ft wide with 1000 foot drops on both sides – exciting!)

We spent most of the week with the family in Zion but we made a day trip to Bryce Canyon to check out the whimsical mud spires in that park.

Here’s one of my better pictures of the scenery at Bryce. It kind of reminds you of sand castles frozen in stone. We hiked the Navajo Loop + Queen Garden’s Loop for a closer look at some of the scenery.

Everyone hanging out on the trail…

Liz and Zach goofing off on the hike back up to the rim.

So after 5 days of enjoying some extra company, Joanne and I were left alone again with Yogi. We decided to pack up and head out towards Moab, UT. But first we made a detour and short stop at Capitol Reef National Park.

The park is named after these white sandstone domes, which early settlers thought looked like capitol buildings in Washington, D.C. This viewpoint is seen when walking through Capitol Gorge, a very scenic drive + hike.

Spring time is here in the desert: the Manzanitas are beginning to bloom.

The campground at Capitol Reef is one of the nicest we’ve stayed out and is unique for one particular reason: Mormon pioneers planted many fruit orchards in this area and today, the Park’s guests can enjoy them as they ripen. The park has over 3000 trees, including apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, cherries, and more! Unfortunately, the trees are just starting to bloom. The best times to come for fruit are early June (cherries) and early September (Apples, Peaches).

So we left the orchards behind and headed towards Moab with a stop at one more national park: Arches! Arches is a really magnificent park. Although it’s not a particularly large park with limited number of hiking trails it provides fantastic scenery. And of course, lots and lots of arches. There’s probably no other place in the world with so many natural arches in one place.

The Devil’s Garden is one of the most amazing hikes I’ve ever done. It passes by 6 or 7 arches and passes through some amazing landscapes. We hiked the 2.5 miles to the Dark Angel (the tower on the left in the picture above) and climbed it. The weather was a bit less than ideal: we reached the top of the tower in 50 mph winds – our ropes were whipping all over the place.

Landscape Arch needs to be seen to be believed. This arch spans the length of a football field and is only 6 feet thick at one point. About 10 years ago a huge chunk of it broke off (caught on videotape by a tourist!) so it might not be around much longer.

Navajo Arch was probably my favorite arch, just because of it’s peaceful setting. It’s in a cave like alcove and even has a log sitting under it to relax on.

Not all arches are created equal: this tiny arch is being dwarfed by Joanne.

We also hiked out to Delicate Arch in the middle of a strange snowstorm. I took some pictures but Joanne doesn’t want me posting them because she doesn’t have a nice smile

This will probably be our last post for awhile since we’re headed off into the Moab desert (Indian Creek) and there won’t be cell phone reception or internet. Don’t worry Mom, we’re doing fine!

St George and Zion NP: Moonlight Buttress

So, as promised, we’ve finally moved on to another state and some new scenery. Our first stop in Utah is the St. George area. Since our major goal here was to do a big wall route in Zion, our main focus is not really free climbing but to get some practice aid-climbing. We decided to stop in downtown St. George at a small sandstone bluff and spent a few hours aiding. Unfortunately the cracks here were mostly hand-size or bigger so they weren’t the best practice for the thin cracks we’d be aiding on.

Then we spent a couple days climbing in Chuckwalla and Snow Canyon. Joanne didn’t like Snow Canyon because the routes here were mostly slab climbing. We spent a whole day climbing the supposedly easy route Pygmy Alien (5.7). Here we had our first mini-epic/rope stuck situation. Since we didn’t own any guidebook for the area we pretty much just started climbing up the formation. When we reached the top of the 2nd pitch, Matt couldn’t see any fixed anchors so we decided to continue to the top since there is a supposed-4th class walk-off. When we got up to the top we found a set of anchors so we decided to rappel down the low-angle slabs to the left of the route.

On our second rappel down the slab our ropes got stuck when we tried to pull them. So Matt had to prusik (using some knots to re-climb the rope very slowly) up 200 ft and try to fix the rope. Then he came back down and the rope was still stuck! So up he went again (slowly). The whole time I kept telling him to try to move the knots over the lip of the rock, thinking that might be the cause of the stuck rope. Finally Matt decided to re-set the rappel because it was threaded in a way that caused the rope to be pinched on the chain anchor (we still don’t have much clue what really happened). After this we finally managed to pull the knot and first rope down and started on pulling the rest of the rope down. By this time we were both exhausted and annoyed and Matt said somehting like “It will be really funny if this rope get stuck now” and voila, the rope indeed got stuck again, caught behind this giant chicken-head and wouldn’t budge. So Matt has to lead up this slab using the 1st rope and finally got our ropes unstuck. I think it took us 3 hours to get down! I swear this is why I really hate slab climbing.

Here’s a picture of Matt rappelling down the slab from hell. Look at the big jumble of ropes below him – looks like a nice mess, eh? It was one of those days… Apparently we are not supposed to throw the ropes down when it comes to slab because they get tangled up nicely.

So aside from our Snow Canyon epic, we spent a day climbing at the Chuckwalla and Turtle Walls, just a couple miles from St. George. The climbing reminded us of Red Rock Canyon (Las Vegas) and made for a fun day of sport climbing.

Here’s the Chuckwalla Wall. It’s not real tall, it’s kind of crowded and every useable hold is chalked “to the max” but makes for a fun diversion. The routes on the right were easier mostly in the 5.10 range while the climbs on the left were mostly hard 5.11s.

The Turtle Wall might have been Matt’s favorite place to climb in St. George. It featured this cave, which was not only a fun place to relax, but had some some very fun routes up the steep cave walls. Banana Dance 5.11c, on the right side of the cave, was the best.

So now…on to Zion and the bigger walls!

Our first day in the park we climbed The Pulpit, a fun 2-pitch spire and Tourist Crack, an amaaaazing 5.9+ (that’s a pretty big plus) thin hand crack. Here’s Matt climbing Tourist Crack. The whole middle section of the route would take as many red camelots as you could throw at it.

Our main objective in the park, though, was to get up something big. And we had our eyes set on Moonlight Buttress. Here’s a picture of the wall (above). You probably can’t see on this low-resolution, but there’s two parties climbing in this picture. The route we wanted to climb, the Lowe route, follows an amazing finger crack for 5 pitches up the prow of the buttress.

To get to the good climbing, though, you have to wade through a couple mediocre pitches. Here’s Matt leading p1, a 5.9 ramp system. The pitch is a bit sandy.

Here’s Joanne on the start of the aid climbing on p2. Supposedly this pitch goes free at 5.10 but it sure looked harder than that. It was mostly protected with nuts and small cams. Since this is Joanne first aid pitch, the thin small gear was definitely very intimidating. A fixed ball nut under the initial roof made that part easier (Joanne had trouble reaching it and just a foot away from it but able to finally clip it with some nifty tricks!)

Pitch 3′s angling bolt ladder. We read that a hook move might be necassary here but it looks like an additional bolt was added here so you can keep your hooks at home.

From here we were on top of the Rocker Block, a loose-looking block that is actually bolted to the wall. Kind of bizzare – I don’t think the bolts would be able to hold it if it decided to roll. We fixed our ropes here (2 60-meter rappels will get you to the ground) and planned to come back in 2 days to finish the rest of the route.

After the Rocker Block, the next 4 pitches are amazing 5-star finger cracks. But first we had to get the haulbag up there. It kept getting stuck on the low angle section of the wall below us and it probably took us 3-4 hours to get back to our previous high point – ugh! Good thing we weren’t in a hurry (and we had a portaledge). Here’s a picture of Joanne starting up p4, The Grand Dihedral. After hauling for hours it was nice to start making real upward progress! This is the longest pitch on the route, and one of the most amazing to look at. (Joanne comment) The gears on this pitch is also super thin. Since we only have 2 sets of TCU and 3 0.5 cam and 2 0.4 cam (these are essentially the only major gears I was using for the whole 180ft pitch; recommendation online is 4-5 sets of TCUs), I had to leap frog each pieces and when nut placement is possible, I’ll end up leaving the nuts for protection.

About 20 minutes after Joanne started up the Grand Dihedral we heard some yelling from below: apparently some guy had fallen and broken his pelvis! Fortunately they were close enough to the road and one of his partners was able to run there and get help. There was another team (climbing Lunar Ecstacy?) between us and the injured party and we were not in a great position to contribute to the rescue so we briefly discussed things, then continued with our route. Here’s Joanne hanging out at the top of pitch 4, while the rescue went on 500 feet below.

A closeup of the rescue, I’m not entirely sure what they were doing but they somehow managed to take 5 or 6 hours to lower the guy 50 feet to the ground and the ambulance. We didn’t get the whole story but it sounded like the guy had intentionally pendulumed but may have misjudged just how far he was going to swing. He ended up slamming into a corner, breaking his pelvis. Last we heard, he was in the hospital and was stable, at least. Hopefully his recovery will end up going as smooth as possible.

Here’s Matt going up into the slot on p5. This part of the climb was particularly awkward as you get squeezed in a tight dihedral and you’re trying to get your gear from the back of your harness while chimneying. Wait, where is the haul line??? I noticed that when he’s part way in the climb and yelled out to him to come back down to get the line. At least he’s not that far away .

So between our slow hauling and slow aiding we were only able to climb 2 pitches on this day. So we ended up setting up our portaledge and sleeping for the night. Here’s Joanne hanging out on our bed. We rented the ledge and didn’t really know how to set it up: we couldn’t get it completely straight so it was kind of angling and not very comfortable to lay on. Still, we managed to get some sleep!

Here’s Joanne working on p6 and p7 the next day. You just keep following this amaaaaaaazing finger crack system for most of the route. It just gobbles up small cams and looks like it would be a fantastic free climb (most of the pitches are 5.12 with great pro).

Finally, on the summit! We ended up spending about 2 days on the route (with 1 bivouac): we certainly didn’t set any speed records but we were really excited to make it safely to the top of our first big wall. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face as we ran down the Angel’s Landing trail and back to the road and the shuttle bus. Rack recommendation (all sizes are camelots): 2 sets of nuts, small tricams, as many finger and smaller sized cams as you have (3 sets or more), 3 #0.75, 3 #1 camelots, 2 #2, 2#3, and optional big piece (#5 or #6 camelot) for squeeze on p5. We didn’t need any hooks.

So what did we do with our dog when we were climbing?? Well – my Mom, Liz, and Zach joined us for the week and kept an eye on Yogi when we were climbing. I think we’ve posted enough for now so we’ll put some pictures up with the things we did with them in a few days (hopefully!!)

Grand Canyon + Isolation Canyon

So we’ve finally moved out of Arizona and onto a new state: the Beehive State, Utah! But before we leave Arizona completely, here’s a few last places we visited: the Grand Canyon (of course!) and Isolation Canyon, a cool word-of-mouth climbing area 70 miles Southeast of Flagstaff.

Hanging out on the South Rim…we took lots of pictures of the Grand Canyon but I figure one is sufficient: there’s lots of nice pictures of this big hole on the internet Anyway, I was really impressed with it – I was just staring at the colors and shadows for about 15 minutes. Joanne, on the other hand, said it wasn’t all that impressive!! She thought the colors of Sedona were prettier (and she’s probably right but still – I thought the Grand Canyon was amazing!)

Before we left Arizona we met a really nice Flagstaff climber named Brad. We ran into him in the Superstition Mountains and then again at The Pit in Flagstaff. He invited us to go check out Isolation Canyon, an area where he’s put up a few routes and I had heard a bit about. The climbing was really superb and an area that I’m sure climbers will hear more about in the future. The rock is super hard Quartzite (some kind of compressed sandstone I think??) with lots of positive edges. But the nicest part is the length: the pitches are usually around 80-130′ with routes up to 3 pitches long. And the canyon is a really beautiful place to hang out.

Joanne climbing the lower part of The Steller Arete (10/10+), one of Brad’s routes. Joanne and I both really enjoyed this climb, featuring some really fun, aesthetic moves on the arete up high.

Joanne pulling over the starting bulge on Life On the Drop (10-). You can get a feel for how big the walls are from this view.

Matt eyes a loose-looking block on Footprints in the Sand (5.10-ish). This mixed route features thought-provoking face moves on a 130-foot long pitch.

Joanne taking a ride on the Angel Wing (10-) – at least I think that was the name…

Besides showing us this cool climbing area, Brad was nice enough to let us borrow some of his big wall gear for our next destination: Zion. Thanks Brad – and we’ll be sure you get your gear back!!

Route Info + Beta!
Best time to climb? Probably climbable most of the year. Might be cold in the winter?

Climbing Quality: Interesting routes on solid rock. Mostly sport climbing with a few gear/mixed routes. This was one of Joanne’s favorite climbing areas we visited. Well worth a visit for a weekend or longer.

Camping: We didn’t stay overnight here but the area around the parking lot seems pretty low-key: I don’t think you’d have any problem setting up a tent.

As of Dec ’08 this was still a bit of a local’s secret. So until a guide is published you’ll probably need to find someone to take you there. The good news is that the Arizona locals are friendly and if you’re really set on climbing here, you’ll probably be able to find someone willing to climb with you.

Flagstaff, AZ: National Monuments + Paradise Forks

So I’ll start this post with our little epic that occurred this morning: today is our rest day so we decided to drive the RV into Flagstaff to hang out and run a few errands. Whoa, what the heck is the RV doing? Well, Matt didn’t realized the ground was so soft and got the RV stuck in it. We couldn’t get it out no matter what so we have to resort to calling AAA for help. Unfortunately since we are not on paved ground, AAA does not cover the towing. They did set us up with a local towing company and got the RV out finally. There goes $250 just when we were thinking of buying another set of TCUs to climb in Zion. I blame it on Matt for his stupidness :p.Oh well, live and learn I guess.

Apparently RVs weren’t designed for offroad driving Note the front wheel is totally stuck in the mud.

Thanks Larry! Now here’s $250! *argh*

Wupatki! Wupatki! It rolls off the tongue and, to me, sounds like someone getting smacked. But no, Wupatki National Monument is the location of some beautiful ruins near Flagstaff, AZ. I’ve probably got the details and dates all wrong but this area was occupied by ancestors of the Hopi people some 700-800 years ago. These ruins were excavated by the park service and preserved for visitors to enjoy and wonder.

The best view of the entire village. A number of buildings clumped together can be seen on the left. A possible community meeting place stands just to the right, a large circle with a firering in the middle. And behind, if you look carefully, is a small oval-shaped structure which appears to be a ball court for a soccer-like game.

Joanne’s enjoying the meeting area here. If you sit at opposite sides of the circle you can talk quietly and still be heard by listeners on the other side – the acoustics are quite good.

The buildings themselves were constructed around an existing rock formation. So you’ll see the rock poking out of the buildings or forming walls and roofs in certain rooms.

Here’s some pottery from the nearby Homolovi Ruins: this area was kind of interesting for a quick stop (plus the State Park there has showers!). There were very few structures to see since it has not been excavated like Wupatki, but there is a massive amount of pottery shards strewn across the ground. Some of the patterns used in the pottery were quite complex and beautiful.

After visiting Petrified Forest and three national monuments around Flagstaff we were ready to go climbing again. Our next destination: Paradise Forks! This place is very appropriately named: two rivers come crashing down into this canyon and merge. With the shade from the Ponderosa Pines and the roar of the waterfalls and no one around for miles it truly is paradise.

Climbing Quality: Sustained crack climbing on solid pro in an amazing canyon. What else do you want?

Camping: I think there’s a pay campground but it’s pretty easy to find free camping…especially when the road is covered with snow.

Here’s one of the waterfalls at Paradise Forks. The stream here drops over the edge about 70 feet: while we were here the river was roaring and was really impressive. In the background you can see some of the basalt cliffs.

Here’s Joanne about to rappel into the canyon at The Prow. Paradise Forks is a bastion of traditional climbing ethics so you won’t find any bolts here. You rappel into the canyon and climb out. It’s a good idea to bring an extra rope to fix to a tree to save time since you’ll be rappelling after every route.

The crack climbs here are some of the most exceptional we’ve seen anywhere and the lines are inspiring. The basalt is of similar quality to Smith’s Lower Gorge, although the cracks here are even more smooth and parallel, with more straight-in cracks (less stemming). The only downside? It’s not a beginner climbing area and we had some trouble finding good warm-up routes. The climbs are physical and even the easiest routes are very stiff 5.9s. We found ourselves totally exhausted after 4 or 5 routes. Just to give you an idea of what we think about routes here, we both feel that if you placed Smith Rock’s Karate Crack here it would be a 5.8 (instead of it’s 10a rating at Smith) – Yikes! On the other hand, we didn’t feel much difference between feel the 5.9 and 5.10s here. Even The Prow (5.11-) felt like a 5.10. You can almost lump all the “moderates” together and call them 5.10 .

The best routes that we’ve climbed here? We liked Mayflower 5.9, East of Eden 5.10, Jolly Roger 5.10, The Prow 5.11-. Although just about everything here would be a classic at any other crag.

The water was pounding the Gold Wall when we were there. This is the smaller of the two waterfalls: a very beautiful place.

Here’s a parting shot of another Flagstaff crag, the Oak Creek Overlook. The climbing is much easier than Paradise Forks and with great views of the canyon, it’s definitely worth spending a day at. The best routes here are Isiah, a steep 5.9 handcrack and the Trinity Cracks (shown above, three fantastic 5.10-/5.10 thin hand cracks right next to each other)

Jacks Canyon

*Warning* Boring climbing post ahead!

While out near Petrified Forest we spent five days climbing in Jacks Canyon and had a surprisingly good time. I wasn’t sure what I would think of the climbing, especially considering the reputation of the place. Drilled/comfortized holds, bolted cracks, bolts every five feet, short routes: it doesn’t sound exactly like a climbing paradise to me but the routes were entertaining (and so were the grades! Well at least some of them…). The rock is high quality limestone and the routes tend to climb like bolted boulder problems with short, physical cruxes. Also, the canyon is quite beautiful and makes for a great setting.

The stream that cuts through the canyon was exceptionally high while we were there. The main wall was completely inaccessible and the water was deep and very fast; fortunately, someone had setup a tyrolean across the river. Unfortunately, they didn’t anticipate exactly how high the water would be. When crossing the river, the rope stretched enough that my backside ended up getting a little wet. Well, it could have been worse! The water level went down our last two days, making the crossing much more relaxing. Visiting climbers might consider making Jacks a stop: you might even have fun on a bolted crack (The horror!). Here were some routes that should put a smile on your face: Betty Cracker 8, Sports Book 10-, Dealer’s Choice 10-, Claim to Fame 10-, Crosstown Traffic 10, Genesis 10, Jack and the Beanstalk 10, Jack of All Trades 10+, Six Shooter 11- Some of the grades here may have been adjusted to reflect our opinions .

Regarding Jacks Canyon, Joanne says

“Both of us agree that the grading system in Jack’s Canyon is definitely a little soft. Not so much that the routes are easy but more because most of the route has 1 crux move, short and not sustain. Matt actually onsited his first 5.12a which is to both our surprises. We did not have the guide book handy (stored in computer) so we merely just pick a route and climb and check the rating later on. And I also got my first 5.11b redpoint after spending some time working on the crux moves . I also think that the grading here are a little funky sometime. For comparison, Matt has been working on another 5.12a and after the 3rd day, he gave up on it because it was just a little too hard for him. And I on the other hand couldn’t even make some of the move on another 5.11a route. Maybe some routes are soft and some aren’t I guess. But this place is definitely a great place for beginner climber because the routes are very well bolted (as in very very well bolted compared to Smith Rock). You can almost always able to clip the first bolt after making 1 small move from the ground and the bolts are about 6 ft away from each other so not too much worry about falling. Also as long as you are climbing your grade, whenever you need a hold there always seems to be something right there. Sometimes I wonder if the holds are real or man-made . “

Here’s Matt testing the waters out on the Tyrolean at Jacks Canyon. It was really hard for him to stay dry!

Just three days later the water level had dropped way down again – you can see Joanne is nowhere close to touching the water!

Matt and Yogi playing with shadows on the road to Jacks Canyon.

Route Info + Beta!
Climbing Quality: OK, the climbing is actually pretty good – certainly better than what I was expecting. But seriously, the routes are way too short. The grid-bolting is a bit obnoxious – a few months have passed since we climbed there and not a single route or even a single MOVE sticks out in my mind.

Camping: At least the camping is awesome, perched on the canyon rim. It’s free and there’s even a pit toilet! No water. Judging from some of the ridiculous ruts in the road, this is not a place you want to be after heavy rains.

Rest day activities: Go explore the canyon. There’s some other roads in the area that access the canyon in other places. While taking a LONG walk one day I spied a great looking wall but the river was too high for me to get close enough to check them out. Based on trails in the area, I’m fairly certain it’s seen some development but I can’t believe it’s not the “main attraction” in the canyon! Other than that you could get drunk. There’s really nothing else to do here!

Life on the Road, Sedona Pictures

We thought we’d spend a little time in this post to give you an idea of how life on the road is treating us. As you can tell, we’ve been climbing a lot: when the weather (and our muscles) permit we climb two days then take a day of “rest”. A rest day is pretty much anything but climbing and isn’t always restful – like hiking 14 miles. Some rest days truly are restful – I often wake up and cook pancakes or bacon and eggs for breakfast. We then might spend the rest of the day lounging around, maybe taking Yogi out for a walk or two.

We’ve both taken advantage of our new found free time; Joanne has learned to crochet and is working on an afghan. Although right now she’s been sidetracked by some books she’s been reading. Hopefully the afghan will get done and it will keep us nice and warm. Or maybe it will just end up as a scarf! (December ’08 Update: she hasn’t worked on the afghan in many months. Never to be finished?) I’ve been working on my Chinese, trying (again) to learn the language. Progress is slow but I’m able to study it every couple of days: maybe next time I visit Malaysia I’ll be able to say a few more words. If only I knew some Cantonese! (December ’08 Update: I’ve forgotten most of what I learned already – d’oh!)

Aside from crochet and Chinese, we’ve both been reading a lot. For me this has been real nice: I’ve always loved reading but I’ve found so little time for it the last few years. On the other hand, we’ve had no time for TV/movies. It was 2 weeks after the Super Bowl when I found out who won and we have no idea what’s going on in the news. It kind of feels like we’ve been living in our own world, very much isolated from everyone. Kind of strange at times…

One other thing we’ve been enjoying immensely while traveling: food!! We hardly ever eat out but we’ve been cooking so much more than at home. When at home, we would get back from work and look at each other: no one would feel like cooking so I would end up eating cereal and Joanne would eat Ramen noodles! But now, when we go shopping we load up on fresh veggies/meat and almost every night we end up having something good to eat. For example, today we ate Chinese Brocolli with rice. Yesterday was mini pizzas baked over a campfire. The day before was beef and brocolli stir fry. And before that was Linguine with ground pork, bell peppers, and mushrooms in a tasty Vodka sauce (courtesy of Trader Joes). You can tell we’re certainly not going hungry!

Well, that’s enough rambling for now – here’s some pictures from Sedona!

Mark drove up from Phoenix and visited us in Sedona. It had snowed/rained for the first day so we couldn’t climb: Mark took us on a hike of Mt. Wilson. Here’s a picture from near the trailhead. The trail was super muddy and then there was several feet of snow near the top. After wallowing through snow for a half hour we decided to turn around.

Here’s Sedona’s beautiful red rocks from one of the popular vista points.

Yogi decided to pose for a portrait too! Joanne gave him a haircut just a couple days after this: check out the picture of him farther down the page for comparison. He doesn’t even look like the same dog!

We couldn’t climb in Sedona while waiting for the sandstone to dry out so instead we went skiing for the day in Flagstaff. And in case you don’t believe us, here’s proof that we went skiing in Arizona.

Our first day of climbing in Sedona we wanted to try this route called Mars Attacks! We got slightly lost trying to find the route from our guidebooks description. Hint: don’t take the Devil Bridge Trail, use the small wash a quarter mile up the road. You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble! It took us 2 hours but we finally made it to the base of the route. This is Matt leading out on pitch 2, a fun, exposed traverse on a band of limestone.

Looking up pitch 3 of Mars Attacks. This follows a nice crack through a whole bunch of different crack sizes: a real fun pitch. Actually, the whole route was really fun! (although, a bit stiff for 5.8, we thought)

When rapelling down from Mars Attacks we saw this really nice crack (Big Corner 5.10+). We had to climb it! The 2nd pitch (the top is shown here) is amazing, ending with this beautiful fingertip lieback (crux). Unfortunately, the 1st pitch is a bit loose. We heard that Sedona has a lot of loose rock and we found some here!

When Joanne was climbing the first pitch of Big Corner, she stepped on a big rock that came tumbling down towards me. I jumped out of the way but a tree branch caught my shirt and arm. I managed to avoid the rockfall but my shirt (and arm) got shredded pretty bad!

After the close encounter with rockfall, I decided to eat some manly appetizers. A big hunk of sausage on each cracker – yummy.

The Mace was the first rock climb to be completed in Sedona and today, it’s still the most popular. The Mace is the prominent, somewhat mace-looking spire on the left here.

This is me looking down at Joanne from the summit of the Mace. If you can see Joanne’s face, it’s probably not very happy as she’s contemplating how to get from her position to where I’m standing (on the summit). Between us is a three foot gap with 200 feet of air below it. To get across you have to step or lean out over the gap until you reach the other side. Then you step across and climb to the top. It’s completely wild and more than a bit spooky. At first Joanne refused to try it but finally I managed to get her to do it . *Joanne comment* The step over is by far one of the most intimidating thing I have ever done. I kept looking down and yelled at Matt “You got me? You got me??” to buy some time prior to making the move. Instead of hands first (which is what Matt end up doing), I did a foot first and I wasn’t sure if my leg is long enough to bridge the gap or not. Thank god, it’s just long enough .

And just in case you needed proof that Joanne made it to the top, here she is (kind of) smiling next to the summit register. The summit register is bolted to the top and you get to rappel from it to get down! We were surprised to see how few people climbed the route: we made the 2nd ascent of 2008!

A hard-earned rest day spent with the pooch .

Our last day in Sedona, this hot air balloon touched down right near where we were camped.

Route Info + Beta

Climbing Quality: Cool spires but mediocre rock takes some of the “fun” out of it.

Camping: Free but a big inconvenience (several miles outside of town and the climbing). Also worth noting that having an RV around town sucks: the trail head lots are too small to accommodate big vehicles.

Rest Day Activities: Do the tourist thing, look at art galleries, go vortex-hunting, find your inner child.

The Mace (5.9+) is “classic” for a reason. Might make a great climb to humble a “hotshot” climbing partner. I spent 10 minutes trying to find a graceful way through the crux 4th pitch before just muscling and grunting my way through it. Incredibly memorable! Bring two ropes to get down! Also, trying to link pitches might cause more trouble than it’s worth (linking 3+4 causes ridiculous rope drag after the already painful crux).

Mars Attacks 5.8 is a great 4-pitch route. Sustained at the grade and with a sandstone slab, a limestone traverse, and a crack to round things out, the variety will keep you interested! Great protection, mostly bolts but you’ll still need a rack for the 3rd pitch. I can’t remember if it’s required (there are intermediate rappel stations) but we did use two ropes to rappel.

Also worth mentioning is the approach can be a bit confusing. Bloom’s Sedona guidebook has a map showing two possible options: we tried approaching from Devil’s Bridge and got ridiculously lost for 2 hours looking for a trail. Save yourself the trouble by taking the wash that is located maybe a quarter mile past the Devil’s Bridge trailhead. Much easier to find the way!

Sedona

So now we’re finally moving North out of the Phoenix area and we’ve landed in Sedona. We hit a little bump in the weather and it rained for a couple days but the sun is finally out. Sedona is a really beautiful area, somewhat reminiscent of Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas, with beautiful Red sandstone poking up everywhere you look. I can see why people would want to retire here – really great views, _slightly_ cooler temperatures than Phoenix and a nice downtown.

We’ve done a few hikes while we’ve been here and we even managed to climb a few routes while we’ve been here, including (of course) The Mace. The rock in the area is certainly a little loose and Joanne knocked down a big piece on one of the routes we were climbing – we’ll post some pictures at a later date!

The only thing that sucks here is the parking: it’s almost impossible to find convenient parking for an RV. The parking lots for trailheads are SMALL and crowded, even on weekdays. Because of this hassle we’re going to be cutting our stay short. It’s a bit dissapointing since we didn’t get to climb everything we wanted to and it really is a pretty area. But anyway, today we’ll be heading North into Oak Creek Canyon and Flagstaff.

Arizona Sampler

It’s been 2 and a half weeks since our last update – whoah! We’ve really been busy and finding a decent internet connection while outside of the city has been pretty much impossible. Right now we’re in Chandler, AZ (just South of Phoenix) and we’re heading North towards Sedona, Flagstaff, and the Grand Canyon. But first, let’s catch up on what we’ve been up to!

Soaking up the Southwest in Saguaro National Park… Personally, I wasn’t that excited about the park – you can see Saguaro’s all over the place near Tucson. Oh, a Saguaro Cactus is the big one in the picture above! They have a real nice patch of Ocotillos, though. Unfortunately, they’re not blooming yet.

While visiting Saguaro NP, we swung by Colossal Cave. It’s a commercial cave and we took their cheesy cave tour. It would have been more fun if they let us explore on our own

After visiting the above parks, we spent 9 or 10 days at Mt Lemmon near Tucson. The weather was mostly good and we got some good climbing in! The rock is granite: while not as solid as the stuff in Joshua Tree, you won’t find much loose rock here. Crack systems tend to be discontinuous, when they exist, so a lot of the routes tend to be face climbing with a few finger or hand jams thrown in on occasion. The rock also tends to be hard to read: the holds are small and getting through tricky sections often requires finding a hidden sidepull or some blank smearing. It took us a couple days to really get used to it but by the end we were having a good time. Because of the huge elevation gain up and down the mountain you can find a comfortable spot to climb any time of the year!

Climbing Quality: Roadside, year-round granite cragging. Our top picks: Rupley #4 5.9, Space Cowboy 5.9+, Cripple Creek 5.10-, Centerpiece 5.10-, Four Crows 5.10, Hunchback Arete 5.11a

Camping: $10/night – lots of campgrounds to pick from. No water in the winter.

Most of the climbs are short, just off the highway. This is Hitchcock’s Pinnacle, a short 2 minute stroll from the road. Climbing this guarantees you’ll find your way onto a few tourists’ cameras.

Here’s Matt climbing one of our favorite routes on the Rupley Towers. I think this was called R-3 (5.9) – I think this was climbed in the 60s before they really named routes. It involves an intimidating traverse under a roof then you get to pull over it on great holds – fun!

After 3 or 4 days at Mt Lemmon, a big snowstorm came in and dropped a foot of snow on the top of the mountain. We headed to a lower elevation on the mountain and waited 2 days for things to melt so we could climb again!

Just a couple days after the snowstorm we were back climbing in the sun. This was a crag near Molino Basin called The Ruins – it was a little further away from the highway and provided an amazing view and some fun climbs.

Queen Creek Canyon

After Mt Lemmon, we decided to head back towards the Phoenix area and the Superstition Mountains. But first, a quick trip to Queen Creek Canyon. Queen Creek Canyon has a few strikes against it: it’s next to a noisy highway, there’s a constant threat of vehicle break-ins and the approach to the climbing has garbage all over the place (from the highway). The rock is volcanic tuff and is described as being similar to Smith Rock, our favorite Oregon climbing destination. Maybe they’re both volcanic rock but it’s not quite the same as Smith. The rock at Queen Creek is much more pocketed and maybe a little more sharp: my fingers were numb after the first day of climbing.

Here’s a climber hanging out on Soft Parade (11a) – this was definitely one of the most fun routes we climbed here (and also one of the longest). It’s neighbor to the right, Pocket Puzzle (10a) was even more fun – a improbably steep looking wall with good holds all the way up.

This was the best part about Queen Creek Canyon – the waterfall!! Some locals told us that in the summer it doesn’t really run and the water gets really nasty. But it looked really nice when we were there so I couldn’t resist jumping in and cleaning up a little. The water was coooold but refreshing.

Oak Flat Campground at Queen Creek was quite nice (and free!). There’s even some decent bouldering just a short walk away. Here’s Joanne and Yogi enjoying a hard-earned day of rest.

On our last day in Queen Creek we decided to go climb at Atlantis, a different area than the Pond Walls (where we were climbing previously). Unfortunately, Atlantis was appropriately named and most of the climbs were somewhat submerged. Here’s Matt looking a little downcast. Oh well, guess that’s our cue to move on to our next stop….the Superstition Mountains.

Route Info + Beta
Best Time to Climb? Fall, Winter, Spring. Summer will probably be HOT.

Climbing Quality: Unless you’ve got no other better place to climb, you might want to avoid this place. If you took the highway away this would be an amazing canyon. From what I’ve heard, the climbing areas that are away from the highway are probably worthwhile but we didn’t get a chance to check them out. We heard lots of break-in occur so we constantly have to worry about our car.

Camping: Oak Flat Campground is great. It’s free and just a short bike ride (or 4-wheel drive) from a great boulderfield. No water.

Rest Day Activities: Park off the highway and be a security guard for other climbers, explore the miles of dirt roads heading out from Oak Flat, play on the boulders.